The Beginning, the Middle, and the Coda
by Lady Otori
Summary: The beginning, the middle, and the coda to Kakashi and Sakura's relationship, in which it all begins when he expresses the most important thing in the most awkward way possible. A three-part series of interconnected oneshots, exploring three different stages of their love. [KakaSaku] [Fluff] [Smut]
1. Vis a Vis Furniture

**AN:** This is the first of three interconnected oneshots based on prompts I received on Tumblr, all of which lined up quite nicely to form a mini-series.

This prompt was by the lovely Lindt Luirae or BouncyIrwin over on Tumblr, who requested Kakashi accidentally confessing incredibly awkwardly and Sakura finding it adorable.

* * *

It was past midnight, she was in her pyjamas, and she was in Kakashi's living room. Working. But that was just what they did these days, the endless grind of paperwork threatening to overwhelm even the boundaries of decency as they bent hunched over work in the small hours.

Sakura held in the sigh that bubbled behind her teeth, eyes sliding to the Hokage as he tried valiantly not to fall asleep chin-first on the trade negotiations. At her look he gave her his best crinkle-eyed smile, the same one she'd seen time and time through the years when Kakashi was trying to distract from what he was (or wasn't, in this case) doing.

"If you don't finish that," she scolded, nodding towards the curling paper beneath his mask, "then we'll never get started on the next thing."

"Is the next thing more work?"

The medic fought to keep the grimace from her face. "The next thing is _always _more work."

"Then I think I'll just sit here and give my back a cramp instead, thanks."

It was true that his coffee table was far too low for them to be sitting at but the kitchen table was worse, a monstrosity left behind in one of Tsunade's stranger gambling sprees that was uncomfortable to even look at, never mind sit for hours. And if she found their current predicament awkward then Kakashi was definitely contorting himself, his larger frame squeezed poorly into the space and suffering for it.

"What I wouldn't give," Sakura said, chin in hand and a longing look stretching across her features, "what I wouldn't give for my beautiful _kotatsu _table."

Which was currently sitting cold and abandoned in her own cold and abandoned flat, too far across the village to be worth going home to at this time of night. Hence, the pyjamas. She frowned lightly; actually, the last time she'd even _been _in her house was to pick up some spare scrubs last week after one too many pointed sniffs in her direction from Ino. Maybe she'd go home tomorrow night, she considered, but at that moment one of the piles of 'urgent' documents slid precariously from the table and she heaved another sigh.

Not. Likely.

"Maybe you should buy a _kotatsu,_" she murmured hopefully, rearranging the fallen sheets in an order incomprehensible to either of them.

From his position beside her, Kakashi snorted. "But there's no point in us having two," he said distractedly, eyes on where he was signing with a flourish.

It took her a moment. Us. _Us? _Gasping, Sakura let the pen fall from her hands as she slowly placed them flat on the table. The clock ticked mournfully in the background of the room as she stared at the man opposite her. He probably hadn't meant-

"What do you mean?" she had to ask.

Kakashi didn't look up right away. "Well…" he started, then stopped. Laid his pen carefully on his work and looked up with the frozen shock of a stricken rabbit. "Uh, I mean… you know."

She didn't, not really. Their closeness started at the threshold of his house and had never crossed hers, some unspoken rule between them that if it was just in the Hokage's official residence then it was mostly business, nothing more; never mind that Sakura sometimes climbed into bed next to him on days where it got really bad and sometimes Kakashi woke up with his nose pressed firmly into her beautiful hair.

"I tell you what," Kakashi began after a moment of staring, but he was speaking too fast and she knew for a fact it was nerves, "there was much less paperwork when we didn't have to think about _diplomacy _with other villages, do you remember?"

"Are you advocating starting a war to avoid this trade deal?" Sakura intoned.

"I'm not ruling it out," the Hokage said darkly.

"Uh huh," she replied, unmoved. "Why don't you think there's any point to you buying a _kotatsu_?"

She could see the swallow as he cast grey eyes nervously around for inspiration. "I remember you said yours was really nice," he offered eventually.

"It is," Sakura agreed. "It goes with my decor. In my house."

"WOULD you like-" Kakashi spluttered, "-a cup of tea?"

"No."

"Oh, okay, ah, would you like-"

"Kakashi," Sakura interrupted, leaning forward slightly to put her face closer to his. "Did you just express... something towards me, vis-à-vis furniture?"

Even asking was playing with the risk he'd stand up and make a break for the window. The last time she'd confronted him - somewhere between the first time she'd stayed and the second time she'd woken up with him - Kakashi had booked three days of back to back meetings for himself and eventually had to be carried home by a disgruntled ANBU who told her to 'choose her moments'. Right now, her old friend was shifting in acute embarrassment, the tips of his ears sizzling as he looked anywhere but at her.

"What did you mean," Sakura said gently, taking pity on his ingrained reticence, "when you said there's not much point to us having two _kotatsu_?"

"You're here most of the time," Kakashi offered, picking up the pen and fiddling. It was an obvious tell and she had to keep the amusement from her face lest he think it was directed as his words, not his actions.

"Yes, which means I rarely get to enjoy the furniture of my own home," she answered. Pity she might feel, but Sakura was no pushover.

Kakashi was unlikely to offer to shift their nightly meetings to her house, because he knew as well as she did that the two of them convening in her small, private space was different than a meeting of two village leaders in the open plan Hokage residence. The rumours would start, the thin veneer of legitimacy that this place gave them gone in the insatiable wake of gossip that followed the Hokage's every move. Though there truly, honestly wasn't anything more than cordial conversation and the mutually beneficial sharing of workload between them, in the eyes of Konoha's people the facts would, of course, be less interesting than the _possibilities_.

Sakura had more than once considered leaning over and kissing the silver-haired man just to get _something_ out of the whole knife-edge affair.

"Sakura…" Kakashi sounded long-suffering and she instantly bristled. Indignation began to worm its way through her thoughts but then- "Sakura, I'm helplessly in love with you, okay? I don't see the point of buying a _kotatsu _because I want yours, here, with you, with all your precious things in my house. With me."

The medic blinked. Opened her mouth and closed it again, silent against the slow descent of Kakashi's face into the table. When it looked like he might start hitting his head against it in despair she reached a hand across the expanse of paper between them.

"Um," she stuttered. If she squinted his words were in fact surprisingly romantic despite the circumstances of their delivery, and Sakura felt the colour rise to her cheeks as he looked up and met her eyes. She noticed instantly that the Hokage's face didn't hold any kind of hope.

"Mah, I'm sorry," he said dolefully. "I'm tired. That's not how I wanted to say it."

"Actually," he continued, finally extricating himself from the table and standing up with a wince. "I didn't plan to say it at all."

Before he could leap out the window or put his head in the oven or whatever melodramatic reaction Sakura thought he might resort to she stood hurriedly, stepping heedlessly over the messy mountains surrounding them.

"Why not?" she asked simply, following behind as he walked to the kitchen island, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Because you don't- you don't feel…"

Sakura watched closely as Kakashi filled the kettle, mundane action powering his movements in the wake of his emotional confusion. Her heart constricted, recognising the way Kakashi must have always, _always_ dealt with what he thought were bad things, difficult things: pushing through it like he always had.

"Kakashi, I get into bed with you," she said slowly.

The tap shut off abruptly.

"Yes, but…"

"But we don't do anything?" Sakura finished.

"Hm."

She leaned on the counter beside the Hokage, watching as he flipped the kettle on emotionlessly and pulled two mugs from his cupboard. He'd said his piece - she'd say hers.

"I know you don't think I'd just climb into bed and sleep beside anyone, Kakashi," and her words were hard but her hand was soft as it covered his on the counter, "so this must be about you thinking- thinking-"

She paused, trying to find the right way to express the tangled complications of Kakashi's feelings around his happiness. Sakura tried very, very hard, but her temper had never been the most stable.

"Cha!" she suddenly exclaimed. "You can't just confess your love in the most awkward way possible and then go and mope about it, you stupid man!"

It might have been the wrong thing to say to anyone else, but Kakashi knew what she'd said - what she _hadn't _said, which was a rejection. At her exclamation, a small smile spread across his face and he upturned his hand, hesitant fingers winding through the gaps between hers.

"I thought it wasn't that bad," he mused, still a little cautious.

"You tried to deflect by considering war against the Five Nations."

"I like to dream big," Kakashi said, grinning now beneath the fabric of his mask.

Sakura very nearly said something outrageously confident about how she was his biggest dream yet or that she could make his dreams come true but that wasn't her and despite _Icha Icha _protestations it wasn't him either. So instead she simply leaned into his side as he poured two cups of tea, a soft smile on her face that he wasn't likely to misunderstand.

"I do too," the medic confided. "My current dream is that one day we'll sit at a _kotatsu _together - here - and there'll only be one pile of bureaucracy to get through."

Kakashi groaned, picking up his tea and depositing hers in her favourite spot with a mock-glare. "I was talking about war, but I think it's worse that you're talking about _work_."

But Sakura just smiled, salaciously, showing teeth as the silver-haired man sat back down in protest. "Well, the sooner we finish in here, the sooner we can…" she trailed off and looked pointedly at the closed bedroom door.

And when Kakashi spluttered hot tea all over the treaty he'd spent the last few hours on, well, nobody had ever accused Sakura of being a particularly good girl.


	2. Carpal Tunnel

**AN: **Please note that this chapter is a little smutty. Prompt by the lovely mummapaintstheblues:

_Rokudaime_ _Kakashi has carpal tunnel syndrome, Sakura, his physician, has to explicitly explain what actions he shouldn't be doing._

* * *

"I fought the scourge of the Seven Swordsmen, you know," he said grumpily, watching as Sakura unwrapped the box of dango with undisguised glee.

"Zabuza," she replied, lifting herself onto the edge of his desk, legs straight out in front of her as she rotated creaking ankles. "I remember, I was there."

She didn't sound suitably impressed - fair, he thought - and put a hand on his chin while he frowned at her under his silver bangs. It was hard to stay disgruntled at the beautiful woman in front of him, especially when she darted a pink tongue out to catch a stray drop of syrup, but he tried. He tried very hard.

"Sakura," Kakashi declared, forcing her to look at him with a smile on her face that hovered around the edge of amused. "I was a General in the war. I led thousands of other ninjas. I was there when _we all saved the world._"

Listing off his achievements, the Hokage watched with narrowed grey eyes as Sakura nodded along placidly to each announcement.

"That's you alright, Kakashi." Vixen. There was a definite air of tease to her tone now, but he refused to budge just yet, staring down the woman he'd shared his heart with as she contentedly ate the dango he'd caved in and bought her (again).

"I'm the _Hokage_." Skirting the edge of a whine, Kakashi watched as his girlfriend rolled her shoulders and neck, satisfied puffs of air escaping her lips as they cracked horrendously.

Both of them were as busy as they ever were and then some, thanks to the Chuunin exams returning to Konoha and causing an alarming amount of paperwork to begin piling up in their respective offices, their living room, and sometimes even the bedroom. Kakashi had taken to "long baths" to avoid the sight of it, but Sakura hadn't complained; rather, she'd joined him on several occasions, which tended to result in even less work getting finished than usual.

So now, he felt rather justifiably betrayed at the way she was smiling deviously at him over the remains of her dessert.

"I hadn't noticed, Rokudaime-_sama_," she murmured, using the tone of voice he'd explicitly banned her from using during working hours. For several reasons, not the least of which was the uncomfortable stirring below his abdomen at her husky tone.

He cleared his throat, willing his pulse to stay stable. "So then," he ground out, "tell me why I've managed to get carpal tunnel syndrome? And why you can't just fix it?"

Sakura pursed her lips, aiming for innocent but looking anything but. Kakashi slid his eyes from her to the door of his office, noticing she'd locked it as she sauntered in earlier. Fighting down a smile, he leaned back nonchalantly, closing the blinds with a swift flick of his uninjured wrist.

Now considerably darker, the temperature in the room seemed to heat up a few degrees as his personal medic shuffled closer along the edge of the desk, placing one deceptively dainty foot on the very edge of his chair.

"Well, Kakashi," Sakura started. "You get carpal tunnel when you… _vigorously _strain your wrist doing certain activities. Repetitive activities."

At her explanation the silver-haired kage's eyebrows rose, unable to clearly make out the expression on her face as she spoke. Over the past two years he'd discovered Sakura had varying levels of tolerance for seduction and he sensed she was probably fast approaching her first limit, so he was surprised when she continued.

"Unfortunately," she said, sounding anything but sorry, "carpal tunnel syndrome affects the nerves in your wrist, and I'm far too drained of chakra to attempt to deal with the nervous system at the moment."

_That _probably wasn't entirely true.

"Hmm…"

She waited while he considered the next move, setting down the dango tray and wrapping both hands under her bare knees. He knew as well as she did that he'd likely strained it with all the signing he'd been forced to do over the past few days; but where was the fun in that?

And outside of whatever game they were playing at the moment, she knew very well he'd have to be unconscious or incapacitated to let anyone else but her heal him.

"I'm afraid I don't particularly understand what… _activities _I could've been doing that would cause this," he paused, watching as Sakura's vibrant green eyes glittered, "so could you explain for me? In detail?"

"So I don't do it _again_," he added, enjoying the way the blush was creeping up her neck now that his sight had adjusted to the dark.

"Ah," - and Kakashi recognised she'd gone as far as she could because her face was his favourite shade of crimson - "well, you've…"

There was a pregnant pause.

"Instead of explaining," Sakura said suddenly, and his eyes went wide as saucers as she kicked her shoes off and placed one squarely in his lap, "let me _show _you."

Forget limits, this was completely uncharted territory: despite her protestations, his girlfriend was at heart a _good girl_, the kind who enjoyed fun but preferred it to stay in their bedroom. In their years together they'd never, ever exchanged more than heated kisses when outside the privacy of the Hokage residence, and never in the middle of the day.

Certainly never in his office.

He swallowed heavily, sliding his mask down when her intentions became clear. Moving slowly to give her every chance to change her mind, Kakashi slid his pain-free hand up the back of the leg currently pressing deliciously into his groin, bypassing her hand with a quick caress before sliding under the hem of her loose shorts.

When she simply wiggled her toes sinfully, stoking the heat below his navel to a fever point, he smirked and moved to touch the tips of his fingers against her underwear.

Sakura didn't let him go further. At the first brush against what was _definitely _not cotton she shifted away from him and levered herself down onto her knees, pushing his legs apart with clear intention.

Maybe, Kakashi thought as she settled between his legs, maybe he was dying.

"Um," he managed.

Her eyebrows rose questioningly, face tantalisingly close to the peak in his trousers where she'd teased him. When he simply shook his head she curved her lips in a secretive smile and without further warning hooked her fingers in his waistband and _pulled_.

"Movement like _this," _she said clinically, curling her fingers around his suddenly exposed erection and demonstrating, "can cause the nerves in your hand to strain themselves."

Kakashi swallowed, feeling strain of an entirely different kind. Sakura between his legs, stroking him absent-mindedly as she stared into his eyes with a devious grin, was the stuff of his fantasies. When she twisted her wrist and her fingers danced across the sensitive skin he wondered how far she planned to go, twitching a little as thoughts of her bent over his desk surfaced.

"Are you listening?" Sakura's head was tilted to the side innocently, green eyes shining at him through the dim light of the office.

He nodded, not trusting himself to speak. At that, Sakura looked satisfied, shuffling closer and sliding her free hand up the leg of his trousers, shifting playfully over his knee and resting close to where her other hand was working.

"To avoid aggravating the nerves it's good to alternate," she continued, switching hands and holding back a laugh as he hissed at the change in temperature.

Gripping the arms of his chair - because it seemed like she wanted him to stay still while she _explained _\- Kakashi watched with dark eyes as she teased him. And just when he started to feel the familiar heat burning in his abdomen his girlfriend suddenly shifted forward on her knees, licked her lips, and pulled him into her mouth with a smile.

With the last of his faculties Kakashi considered whether he'd already died and was currently enjoying the afterlife.

"Oh, _god,_" he moaned.

"Nope," Sakura said around him, the vibrations of her voice doing wonderful, terrible things, "just Sakura."

He bucked his hips in retaliation, enjoying the indignant squawk he received in return. There was a moment where he was already cataloguing the day as one of the highlights in his life when Sakura's hands slid up his torso and suddenly, awfully, his blood ran cold.

He hadn't expected to see her until later that day. Hadn't thought of the need to hide the not-so-inconspicuous small box in his chest pocket. Sakura was in many ways an unconventional girl, but he didn't think that extended far enough to finding out he was going to propose to her while she was on her knees doing unspeakable things to him in his office.

There was nowhere for him to shift away to and she'd obviously felt him start to go soft in his panic; she frowned, looking up and pulling away completely at the obvious dismay on his face.

Kakashi was torn between feeling grateful that her hands had retreated before they incriminated him and feeling depressed that she'd moved certain _other _parts of her away from him too.

"I'm, I'm-," the medic started, seductive confidence fleeing at the look on his face, "I'm so sorry, was that too much? I just…"

She was flushed in the way that Kakashi knew meant that she was deeply embarrassed.

"Oh, oh," he stuttered, realising that _of course _she'd misinterpret his pulling away. "No, it was great, I-,"

There was a beat of silence where he pulled his trousers back up and she sat on the ground looking forlorn. Pulling her unresisting form up until Sakura was square in his - rapidly responding - lap, Kakashi sighed into her neck, careful to hold himself so she wouldn't feel the ring box. Disliking the rigid way she was holding herself in her embarrassment, he stroked a soothing hand down her back, breathing in her unique scent while she allowed him to comfort her.

"Was I bad?" she whispered.

He couldn't resist nipping the soft skin under her ear. "No," he growled.

"Then…"

Kakashi sighed. "If I tell you, you have to promise not to be annoyed."

An instant passed when she considered. "I probably will be," Sakura said honestly.

"Mah, you probably will," the Hokage agreed. "But…"

He shifted, unwinding an arm from around her to fish in his pocket.

"I've been planning that for _days,_" Sakura sounded slightly sulky and he smiled secretively.

"I've been planning _this _for days, too," he replied, pulling out the small gold box and holding it where she could see. "But I didn't think you'd appreciate finding out while you were…"

Grinding his hips up into the beautiful woman on his lap, Kakashi grinned at the way her gasp of surprise trailed off into an unbidden moan.

"Is that...?"

"Yes," he answered simply. "Now, could you hold this for a minute? My wrist hurts."

"Oh!" Sakura gasped. Reaching out with her free hand she covered his in her grasp, glowing green energy flowing between them as she soothed the hurt. It still felt strained and she smiled apologetically. "I was telling the truth when I said I can't heal it all right away."

"Feels better," Kakashi said, shrugging. "Now…"

He cleared his throat, surprised to find that he wasn't nervous in the slightest. Probably because he hadn't opened the box and therefore hadn't really _asked. _

"Can I have that back?"

Sakura frowned.

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to need it later."

"But…"

"I messed up asking you to date me in the first place, I'm not messing up this."

Sakura closed her first around the box protectively. "Uh, it's mine," she said, a touch confused.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Is it?"

"Yes," she nodded, sounding more confident. "I don't think you get do-overs."

"Depends," he said, deceptively light, "on your answer, I'd say."

"Depends," Sakura fired back, "on what you were planning for later."

She didn't sound particularly annoyed, or serious, but he still felt cautious about keeping her happy after her embarrassment. Detailing the circumstances of how he'd planned to propose later, Kakashi watched as his girlfriend nodded along as he described flowers, somewhere nice to eat, a walk to the Hokage mountain, maybe the possibility of incredible sex at the end of the evening.

"Alright," Sakura allowed. "That all sounds suitably romantic."

"I'm glad," he replied. "So can I…"

Gesturing towards where she still clutched the box, Kakashi waited expectantly.

"Nope, this is mine now," Sakura grinned, looking mischievous. "Don't you have a question to ask me?"

"Sakura…" he reserved that tone of voice for when she was being particularly difficult and she recognised it with a widening grin. "Shouldn't we have a nice romantic evening first? Express our love and such?"

"Oh, I think we were doing pretty okay at expressing our love before you panicked."

He levelled a glare at her which she ignored.

"Sakura," Kakashi repeated. "In that case," and he plucked the box from her unresisting grasp, "in that case, will you please be my wife?"

Opening the box with a simple flourish, the Hokage watched as the pink-haired kunoichi leaned forward in his arms, green eyes glittering with excitement as she examined the ring in the box. It was kunoichi-proof (he'd bowed down and asked Ino's sage advice), soft white gold with diamonds inlaid around the band so they wouldn't catch while she was working.

"It's lovely, Kakashi," she breathed, tease gone as she spoke softly. "And of course."

He watched as she slid the band onto her finger. He also watched as her smile turned not-so-innocent again and she wriggled slightly in his lap.

"I felt that," she said with a look that sent his blood flowing south.

"It was a beautiful moment."

"Can we still go on a date later?"

"Of course."

Kakashi sighed as she wrapped pale arms around his neck. It wasn't the way he'd planned it, spending hours agonising over which restaurant was nice without being suspiciously so and which route up to the Hokage mountain would be romantic without being patrolled, but then their relationship hadn't started conventionally. It seemed oddly fitting that it didn't evolve conventionally too, though he was probably going to tell people he'd proposed before dinner or something suitably public.

As though she'd read his mind, Sakura pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth and leaned back, arms hooked behind his neck.

"You should've just let me find it," she said teasingly as he shook his head disapprovingly. "That'd be one for the gossipers, wouldn't it?"

He growled warningly, hands moving to clasp her waist and shift her petite form so she was straddling him in the chair. But Sakura was never particularly obedient.

"I can see the headline," she continued. "Hokage proposes to Head Medic while her lips are wrapped around his-"

Before she could finish, Kakashi pushed himself up and kissed her soundly, swallowing her words with the kind of kiss he caught her sighing about when she thought he wasn't listening.

And when Sakura didn't protest but melted in his arms, Kakashi smiled against her lips, pushed her backwards onto his desk, and set about bringing the rest of his fantasy into glorious reality.


	3. Just the Two (Three, Four) of them

**AN:** It's finished! The prompt this time was from a lovely anon who requested:

_For the prompts could you do a fluffy kakasaku family with them being lovely dorks for their little baby?_

I hope it's as tooth-rottingly fluffy as you wished.

* * *

Leaning over the counter with less grace than she was used to, Sakura wondered not for the first time why they'd decided to have more than one child. Saburo was a handful on his own, a bundle of arms and legs that declared defiance against his mother and father with every waking moment, and the idea that she was bringing not one but _two _more into the mix was… exhausting.

Maybe that was why she hadn't yet told Kakashi they were having twins. He'd simply accepted her larger belly this time round as the signs of a much bigger child; helped, of course, by bribing Pakkun and the rest of the dogs to secrecy when they'd taken one look at her and declared it a litter.

Taking a bite out of the crisp red apple in her hand the medic sighed heartily, a smile rising to her lips when Saburo copied the sound from his perch on his stool. At three years old, he was at the developmental stage where he mimicked the noises that she and his father made, the resulting cacophony of sighs and world-weary grumbles a source of endless entertainment to Naruto on the days he watched their precocious child.

"Mama?" the youngest Hatake queried, bouncing up and down when he couldn't see her over the counter in his path.

"Ye-es?" she answered in a sing-song, plopping the half-finished apple onto the bench and moving into her son's line of sight.

"Tired?" he asked, surprising her with his perceptiveness.

"Oh, just a little, from all this growing I've been doing!" she replied with a smile, patting his silver hair in lieu of gathering his robust little body up for a hug. Already cumbersome at the four month mark, she winced at the thought of picking things up in the months to come.

"Then it's nap time," Saburo said decisively, warm hand grasping up at hers as he led her to the couch.

"Is it now?" Sakura asked, amused, and let her son pull her gently down while he fussed in his childish way around her. Like his father Saburo was a taciturn sort, prone to showing he cared rather than expressing it in words. It might have been her hormones but the sight of her baby boy being so caring brought something very like a lump to her throat.

"Are you joining me?" she asked once he'd pulled a blanket over her half-prone form.

Saburo shifted, conflicted between the temptation of the offer and the urge to act grown up.

"Um…"

"I would," a voice called from below the table in the living room, and Sakura tipped her head back to see Pakkun give her a very human wink. "I'll watch after Mrs. Boss."

Saburo clapped his hands together in obvious glee. "Thanks, Pakkun-san!" he cheered, climbing with deliberate care in between Sakura's legs as she sprawled on the couch. Within minutes, he was breathing the heavy sleep of childhood, head resting on his favourite spot on her ever-expanding stomach.

Patting his curling silver hair softly, Sakura felt that moments like this made it all - the tears, the tantrums, even the fact that she felt rather like a beached whale - worth it. And soon enough, she joined the younger Hatake in sleep, curled up like puppies as Pakkun and the others crept around and put Saburo's toys back where they belonged.

* * *

As soon as he stepped over the threshold of his home, Kakashi felt the calming wash of his wife and son's chakra flow over him. He'd always been sensitive to people's natural chakra rhythms but after six years living with Sakura, he'd become attuned to the slightest fluctuations in her ebb and flow, and he felt his lips curve at the dull swirl that indicated sleep.

Sure enough, he tiptoed into their living room to find her peaceful on the couch, Saburo curled up as close as he could get. It had been a tough day at the office, dealing with the falling out of two jounin that had escalated to something very close to attempted murder, but the sight of his two favourite people eased the stress from his brow within seconds.

In fact… Kakashi tossed his official robes over the back of the nearest chair and carefully, quietly, pulled himself over the back of the couch until he was snug between it and his wife. Coming close to a sleeping Sakura was a gamble; she was prone to growling something fierce and pregnancy only increased her sleepy rage, but he was pleased to see she only sighed and shifted to accommodate him.

Pressing a warm kiss to her temple, he closed his eyes and was about to let sleep take him when he felt a fat finger poke him in the arm.

Cranking one eye open, Kakashi held back a long-suffering sigh when he found his son's face very close to his.

"Dad," Saburo whispered.

"Mhm?" he replied, staring into eyes that were a miniature copy of Sakura's.

"Mama is very, very tired from all the growing," his son informed him, a touch haughtily.

Kakashi waited. Saburo was rarely the kind of child who made declarations without reason, and he suspected a question the likes of which would have him wanting to wake Sakura up to help him handle it. Being a doctor gave her a fantastic advantage when it came to difficult questions and he'd always been an awkward sort, even with his own wife and child.

"So…" his son continued, "I've decided that I don't want a little brother or sister any more."

Kakashi blinked, feeling suddenly far more alert. Sliding his eyes away from his son's he caught Pakkun's gaze, his most loyal summons looking as taken aback as he felt.

"Well," he said slowly, clearing his throat and reaching a hand out to stroke the soft skin of his son's cheek, "why is that?"

"Because…" Saburo looked between him and his sleeping mother, lip trembling in the prelude to panic, "because mama can't- can't- can't-"

Kakashi felt his heart clench as his son's words began to be interrupted by hiccuping sobs.

"Because I'm worried mama might fall over and not get u-up!"

At Pakkun's suspiciously laugh-like snort Kakashi frowned her his son's head at his companion before meeting his son's watery gaze and trying for a reassuring smile. Resisting the urge to wake Sakura up he opened his mouth to speak, but at that moment she shifted instinctively in her sleep, cradling her upset son closer to her with a mother's fierceness.

"Oh, mamaaaa!" Saburo was crying in earnest now, small arms clenched at his sides as he let his mother's arms fold him into a hug.

"Listen, little Sabu," Kakashi started, earning a frown at this use of his mother's exclusive nickname, "your mama is the strongest, most wonderful…"

And he was about to continue, but with a sleepy shift he was confronted with not one but two pairs of glimmering green eyes, as Sakura woke up to what could only be described as literal pandemonium in her arms.

* * *

Staring between her howling son and her panicked husband with the fogginess of sleep rapidly retreating, Sakura's first instinct was to fight, and she felt Kakashi's soothing hand clasp hers as she clenched her fists warningly.

"What's this?" she croaked, voice still hoarse.

As her son was too busy trying to burrow himself into her cardigan tearfully she looked expectantly towards her husband, who managed to look sheepish _and_ rather seductive as he was pressed against her on the couch.

"Um, Saburo has decided he doesn't want a brother or a sister any more," Kakashi explained, hand reaching out to ruffle their child's hair.

Sakura raised her eyebrows in surprise; it wasn't an uncommon sentiment amongst young children, but it wasn't one he'd expressed before.

"Whyever not?" she asked soothingly, hand covering Kakashi's on their son's silver locks.

Snuffling awfully, Saburo peeked up from his position on her stomach - which was rapidly becoming quite uncomfortable - and she saw his valiant attempts to stop crying at the worried expression on her face.

"Because you might- you might fall over and never get up."

"I see," Sakura said, amusement hovering at the corner of her lips. "Because I'm getting really big?"

Saburo nodded.

"And what did your dad say?"

"That you were the strongest, most wonderful…" Saburo repeated his father's words, listing them off on his fingers with the seriousness of a child. At the praise Sakura levelled Kakashi with a satisfied look, bringing a blush to her husband's cheeks.

"And do you think he's right?" she asked softly once he'd finished.

When her son acquiesced, Sakura smiled indulgently, stroking down from the crown of his head to his cheek. Her smile only deepened when she went to move the heavy toddler into a more comfortable position and Kakashi anticipated what she needed, strong hands clasping Saburo and bringing him onto his father's hip.

Taking the opportunity to sit up so she was upright around Kakashi's legs, she continued to look fondly down at her two men.

"Don't be sad, little Sabu," she said gently. "Think of it like this… that I'm growing some more people to help me get up if I ever fall down."

Feeling her husband stiffen behind her Sakura didn't realise what she'd said until he spluttered in shock.

"People?"

Ah. Sakura tossed her head to the side in apology, one hand on her stomach and the other on her neck.

"Yes, people… Saburo here is going to have two little brothers."

Kakashi stared at her mutely, grey eyes widening.

"Three… Hatake boys."

Her son giggled, upset forgotten at his father's obvious shock.

"That's right."

"Well…"

And she'd be worried if she didn't know Kakashi, but the shock was already morphing into her husband's quiet expression of joy, apprehensive as it was. When he sat up behind her, moving their son into her lap as he laid his legs around her and cradled her in his arms, she sighed in pure bliss. And when she felt his lips touch the side of her neck under her ear, she closed her eyes and grinned broadly, reaching back to pull fingers through his rough hair.

"I suppose," she mused, pulling his head so his chin rested on her shoulder, "that it _was _my turn for an awkward confession."

And though Saburo didn't know why his mother and father were laughing - and she was _certainly _never going to tell him about the second of his father's awkward confessions - Sakura beamed as the youngest Hatake threw his head back and howled with the same laughter she'd heard in Kakashi's rare unguarded moments.

_Yes, _she thought. _Things like this - even tantrums - are worth it._


End file.
